Milk

[elfs]

Omaha and I went to see Milk (IMDB), the biopic about Harvey Milk. I just want to know why Omaha keeps taking me to films that make me cry.

Harvey Milk was one of the first openly gay people to run for any office, anywhere, in the United States. The film follows Harvey on his at first quixotic attempt to turn the Castro district of San Francisco into a gay mecca, and then to take a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors. Eventually, in 1977, in an increasingly liberal San Francisco, Milk succeeded, and he also succeeded wildly in preventing the passage of Proposition 6, a statewide initiative that would have thrown any known homosexuals-- or those who supported them-- out of any teaching positions. Milk's efforts frustrated the most conservative member of the city board, Dan White, who eventually took his out frustration by shooting Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, and for this rather infamously bad-boy actor, who was once married to Madonna, to put everything aside and mince and kiss guys and play an openly gay man, and he pulls it off so brilliantly and without pause that, yeah, Sean freakin' Penn is probably up for an Oscar this year.

There are great performances all through the film, from Emile Hirsch and James Franco and Josh Brolin. The weakest is from Diego Luna, who plays Harvey's second lover in the film, but it's an easy role-- play a clingy, neurotic drunk-- so it doesn't really get the attention it deserves.

But it's really Penn who deserves all the attention. His Harvey Milk is outrageously, happily gay at a time when being so was dangerous, and he strolls through this film so utterly in tune with the character that you believe his barely-there lisp and sweetly unironic flamboyance.

This film has only been playing in one theater here in Seattle, and the theater's been showing Milk for six weeks, and it was packed. I can't help but wonder why it has such limited distribution when it seems to be doing so well.

The film is rated "R". There are three scenes that suggest that, but let me say this: if the second one had been a man and a woman, it probably would have been P-13.

Really, go see Milk. It's a great movie.

Comments

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

A correction: Dan White's frustration was predominantly against Moscone, not Milk -- He shot the mayor first and then went looking for whomever else he could find... and found Harvey. The film makes Moscone's death look more incidental when unfortunately it was more the other way 'round.

Have you seen "The Times of Harvey Milk" yet? If not, do. :)

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I actually didn't get that impression from the film. The impression that I got was that Dan White had specifically come to Moscone's office to confront him regarding his position. And considering that White had the gun with him, it is obvious that his intention was to shoot Moscone if the mayor would not give him back that position...although I'm sure that he had convinced himself in the beginning that he would only use the gun to threaten the mayor into doing so.

After that, it seemed that White sought out Milk, most likely because he may have gotten the impression from Moscone that Milk had pressured the mayor into denying White his position back, or perhaps because he saw Milk as his most antagonistic adversary.

Not knowing the facts regarding the details of the actual shooting, or White's claims regarding it afterwards, it's hard for me to tell how close my interpretations are to the actual events.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

Milk did advocate (no pun intended) to Moscone that White should not be given back the seat he resigned. And White did go looking for Milk specifically after shooting Moscone -- the above issue was the immediate flashpoint, but they'd had a long history of crossing swords (no pun intended) on the Board of Supervisors.

I was only 10-13 in those years, but my tiny alternative school in Noe Valley (students and teachers both) was closely tuned in to the 1975 elections.

- E

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

That's a misprision. He found other people first. His "Hi, Diana!" walking down the hall to find Milk was historical, said to DiFi. He didn't want to shoot DiFi; he wanted to shoot Milk.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only he'd done us a favor and taken out Feinstein, we might have an actual liberal in the senate instead of a pretender.

[fallenpegasus]

It's probably "limited distribution" because it was produced as an art house film, and thus doesn't have a lot of prints, since prints are *expensive*, and are often the most expensive part of an art house film's budget. (In this particular case, salaries and such are probably the most expensive part.)

It's harsh but true, if I had been a studio exec for this film, even had I greenlit it, I probably still would have done it on arthouse distro. Everyone who wants to see this film on the screen will, it's never going to pick up much "I'm standing in line at the theater, what movie should I see?" viewership, and any viewership it misses because of limited theater distribution it will pick up on DVD and Netflix.